Seven Invitations
To Liberate Your Life
The Seven Invitations
Here are the Seven Invitations that comprise Setting Your Heart on Fire, each followed by a brief excerpt.
The First Invitation, Feel Everything
Describes how to stay emotionally present in any circumstance.
‘When it comes to feelings, the only way out is through. It’s that simple. The beauty of opening to all feelings, even the ones we judge as negative, is that in time they let go of us. The more we feel, the more we love. And the more we love, the more love becomes us.’
pg 12
The Second Invitation, Question Everything
Explains how to transform limiting beliefs into a source of possibility and growth.
‘Only when your entire life is founded upon exploration, only when you’re as comfortable in mystery as you are certainty, only when you can open to new and differing points of view with the ease and constancy of breathing à only then will you have met love’s challenge.’
pg 45
The Third Invitation, Resist Nothing
Shows how to overcome convictions about the way things should be in order to accept them as they really are.
‘You cannot change what you don’t first accept. And this acceptance can’t just be lip service, but instead must involve your whole being. This unconditional acceptance is required to resolve any internal or external problem. As long as you resist, you cannot see the problem fully and clearly. As long as you resist, you remain mired in negativity. As long as you resist, it’s more than likely that your solution to the problem will end up perpetuating it in another form.’
pg 74
The Fourth Invitation, Live Like You’re Dying
Explores how to access the power of every moment.
‘When you begin to live a life imbued with death, everything becomes more vibrant. Even life’s most mundane and unpleasant aspects suddenly seem miraculous. It’s akin to falling in love. Only now, instead of a person, the love object is life itself.’
pg 108
The Fifth Invitation, Live Like You’re Dreaming
Demonstrates how to bring the creativity of the unconscious into waking life.
‘When you bring the wide-eyed, ever-curious approach of your dream-self into everyday waking existence, suddenly the difference between the two realms seems to diminish. Both are rich in subtlety, resonant with depth, and full of endless surprise.’
pg 140
The Sixth Invitation, Love Like You’re Dancing
Reveals how to turn any relationship into a springboard for self-discovery.
‘In the dance of love there are actually four partners à you, the present moment as you experience it, your partner, and the present moment as he or she experiences it. Your dance with the present is your own. The same is true of your partner’s. If both of you are gliding along easily with the present, open to yourselves and to love, then you can follow one another’s movements with grace. If either or both of you are shut down, disconnected from yourselves and from love, then the dance between you becomes immediately strained.’
pg 176
The Seventh Invitation, Widen Your World
Illustrates how to treat the entire global community as if it were your own beloved.
‘One of the best ways to work on yourself is to work on the world. In doing so the deeper truth re-emerges à the two are separate facets of a united whole. Your unity with all of creation now translates into concrete deeds. Working to better the world is what makes the world feel more like home. It’s how your heart heals, grows, and ultimately ignites.’
pg 223